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http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/suspension/frontcontrolarm/index.html This should help a bit. Atlantic Z techtips are a great resource, I check them before most anywhere else. I threw in my arms with a larger set of items I needed pressed when I took them to a machine shop. They pressed out the bushing and the ring, I didnt notice any damage to the arm at all... You got me a little nervous now, anything particular I should look for?

Good idea but its never going to work. Go back and study your Back to the Future movies Coincidentally I will be awarded my senior design project sometime within the next few days. My top choice was helping build a vehicle for our Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition team, next choices were several projects for our FSAE and Baja teams. Will be interesting to see what I get, I cant wait to get started!

The drums may be seized on the hub. This is a pain to take off. Do some searching around, people have employed various strategies to removing it. Most of them involve a torch and a big hammer. Dont know if its an option for you or not but I took both struts with the suspension arm, to a reputable machine shop. I had them press out the brake drum as well as the spindle pin. It saved me a lot of time and was pretty cheap considering how much of a hassle it must have been for them to do it.

15/16 MC will bolt up just fine. Before you put it on you will have to adjust the pushrod inside the booster. Otherwise your brakes wont engage hardly when you push the pedal. Try www.car-part.com they might have some calipers listed. The swap is definitely not cheap. Ultimately its your call what you spend your money on. I knew I wouldnt see a great improvement in braking, but I did the swap anyway because I wanted to. Servicing your drum brakes and adding nice brake pads, shoes and SS lines will likely cost less then the disc brake swap but it really just depends on what you prefer to do.

Having done the 280zx rear disc swap (the same as 240sx) the improvement I noticed was not a large one and was probably more due to a different factor than the rear disc brakes themselves (the brake pads being the largest factor). I used a 15/16 MC and adjustable prop valve. I drove it with stock MC and felt the 15/16 one is a good improvement. I would recommend it, along with the prop valve. If youve searched around you already know stock brakes work fine for most applications, theyre not really THAT crappy, so any upgrades done here are because you want to do them... and less because you need to. Therefore, if youre really on a tight budget I would recommend some higher quality brake pads and shoes and some SS braided lines. These will greatly improve braking, cost less, and require less work to setup. This will leave time and budget for other (possibly more necessary) modifications to the car.... Just my opinion...

I dont want to be too mean but if youre taking a chemistry midterm and you're still not sure what Avogadro's number is... youre in real trouble. This is one of the more basic concepts that you really need to understand well to suceed the rest of the term. I would talk with your teacher, maybe schedule sometime with them to review some key concepts and make sure you get them all. You might not get an A on your midterm now but making sure you REALLY understand the concepts now will help you keep on top of things down the line.... If youre uncomfortable talking with the teacher, as everyone else says, wikipedia and your textbook are good sources. If you took good notes, those are even better since they usually show what the teacher emphasizes the most of what they are teaching you. Also, find somewhere with lots of sample problems (your text book), make sure it has answers in the back and just start doing all the practice problems, checking your work as you go. This will take a while, but you will get practice solving problems which is very important in a technical class like chemistry. Asking on a forum for very general information isnt really the most productive use of your time...

Awesome setup! Next step, fuel injection via GM TBI Throttle Body + Megasquirt and intercooler?

I have one! I have one! Locost 7 chassis A big electric motor... or 2 A Zilla 2000 amp DC motor control And an A123 Systems or Kokam powered Li-Ion 400+V battery pack with just enough juice for 3-4 autox runs at max power... Gonna start building it next winter

Excellent, so a L28 wont bump me into the next class. Seems like there are a lot more bits and pieces to build a nice N/A L28 than a L26 so this is good news. I'm going to have to start thinking about what I can do. I realize that the biggest improvement I can do is work on my driving, I just started autocrossing over this last summer. I've definitely learned a lot of about driving and car control and there is still a lot to learn. I actually like the idea of building a car to a particular ruleset. To me, it actually seems a little bit more interesting and a greater challenge to be able to make something to the limit of a given set of parameters rather than having a blank slate you can do anything with. I like more direction... to each his own I guess

Autocross season's over for me but I'm already thinking about next year. Based on what I've read in the SCCA rules my car will be placed in FP class, mostly due to the gutted interior. I've been wanting to do some motor work, swapping to an L28 and/or building up something with a little more compression. However, I dont want to bump myself into SM2 or Mod classes. I've been trying to make sense of the rules to see what all can be done within my class rules. If I understand the rulebook correctly, FP is limited to using the stock block and head, but any piston, cam, crank, etc. Swapping to a L28 will drop me into SM2 or Modified and anything else (LS1, SBC) will be XP or Modified. However, an autocrosser at work told me I can transplant the L28 into my 260z and still stay in FP because I'm basically running a backdated engine. Any chance someone more experienced can clear this up for me? Anyone else running FP class Zs that want to share what they did within this class?

If you're not set on car-related projects, you could look at making your project for the ASME design competition (http://www.asme.org/Events/Contests/DesignContest/Student_Design_Competition.cfm). They provide the design challenge and also have a specific set of criteria that your project must follow. I found this gave our team direction for how to do our project while also allowing room for creativity. Also if yours actually works at the end, you could perhaps enter the competition... If you want a car related project but are in a smaller budget, building a custom RC car would be pretty neat. I always thought it would be cool to make RC car V8, or V6...

Jon, actually I'm interested in just the header. I already have had exhaust fabricated to fit this header design and since I'm happy with the performance and tone I only want to replace the header. This is why I'm being very particular on which header I need, I've seen a couple different versions and I want to be sure its exactly the same as mine. Hah, I just saw that post this morning. Thats too bad, it would have made everything a lot easier.

I'm looking for an MSA style header. I'm going to be picky here, it must be a 6:1 design, have a 2.5" diameter outlet and have square exhaust ports. I prefer someone local-ish, but if you have one let me know and maybe we can work something out. Below is a picture of what they headers look like, thanks!

Yeah, I'm using the 280zx calipers.. at least that's what I was told they were off of when I bought them. Seemed to work fine though.

That is interesting you didnt get full pad engagement. I'm running 280zx rotors and 280zx calipers with zraceproducts brackets.. and as you can see my pads cover the whole rotor surface: The maxima brackets look about the same as mine, rotors are looking very similar too... What calipers are you using? It almost looks like theyre sitting themselves high rather than the rotors being too small... though its hard to say either way. Edit: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=102340&highlight=rear+brakes Looks like thats the way they run with Maxima calipers... though I imagine using ZX calipers will get more pad on the rotor and do a little more braking for you...

Z race products makes a kit to put toyota 4x4 calipers on s30 rears. Its not cheap, for that kind of money might as well pay a little more and get the Willwood kit by AZC, for another $200. They sell it on ebay here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240z-260-280z-Custom-Rear-Brake-Conversion_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQhashZitem53d6c0bdaaQQitemZ360085241258QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories I did the 280zx disc brake upgrade myself, its helped my braking a little bit, but nothing that impressive either... maybe if I went with more aggresive compound pads I would notice more difference. I got my whole setup for less than $300. 130ish for the brackets and used rotors and calipers for about the same. I got the 83 280zx turbo calipers, and it turns out the 240sx pads fit right on there. Its a nice setup and I have e-brake capability. I dont know if I'd bother doing the swap now that I've done it though, my drum brakes worked fine and I could have bought new swaybars for that money...

I agree, but I think it entirely depends on how you approach the build. If your goal is to make a street monster then yes it would be more difficult. One of my co-workers is a big 510 guy. He's had race prepped 510s before but right now he's got a 510 wagon with a SR20DE that he drives everywhere every day. Its got all the essentials - heat, radio, AC, power locks, power windows, he's in the process of adding cruise control too. Rides very smooth and not obnoxiously loud... but pretty quick too. That being said he's put in a lot of time and money into it, he hasn't cut any corners and has been extremely thorough with his build. He could have something almost as good with a lot less time, but then it wouldnt be as good and reliable of a DD as it is. Overall I think its possible to build whatever you want if you set the goal ahead of time and work towards it, its just a matter of doing it and spending the money... which is another issue entirely...

Nice, subscribed... I was thinking of going this very route in a year or two. Gonna be watching your build in preparation Dunno too much about building up motors but I would just buy a GM crate motor, I think its 1500 or so and comes assembled with a lot of what you will need AND comes with a 3 year waranty as long as you dont take the thing apart. You can run whatever intake/carb setup you want with it too... ~250 HP, 350 lb-ft not a bad start. Once everything is set and running well and you want more power screw the waranty and go for new heads/cam/whatever else.

I'm not completely familiar with automobile tech degrees but I think a Mechanical Engineering degree is very different from an automobile tech degree. From the numbers youve listed the pay is about the same for both, but the work you do is very different. Also, from what I've seen, its not easy to get an engineering job in the automotive industry, much less a F1 team. If you want to work on cars, auto tech seems like a good option and, judging by your numbers, the pay seems to be about the same as a ME would recieve. Again I imagine jobs doing any real custom fab/race work will require a lot of time, dedication and sacrifice. From what I have seen any "cool" jobs related to cars require you to be really interested and really stand out from everyone else to be hired. They are high competition jobs since almost everyone likes playing with cars. IMO you cant expect to go into that kind of work and have money be your motivator, you need more. If youre after money, there are better career paths to make big bucks and as Tony pointed out you might be left disappointed whatever you end up doing.

Yes, that is part of the reason I have been putting off fixing that issue as well. Just something unsettling about putting random stuff into the carb. I dont think it would cause any real harm in those passages though since it doesnt actually mess with any of the air circuits in the carb. I will try it one of these days, and will post if I find anything out... if you get to doing it first, let me know too.

I know its been a while but have you had a chance to give that a shot? I am very interested to hear if it works or not...

Yes, though I will probably wait until the winter, or next summer to do the radiator and firewall bracing. Right now I'm trying to keep mods to a minimum since I race almost every other weekend... and youre right, I dont need the extra holes for the rear strut towers, it was just easier to order the same set for the front and rear. And yeah, I'm in town this weekend, though I think I'm gonna be busy the rest of today and possibly all day tomorrow. Just give me a call or whatever, if I'm not busy I'll swing by.. its not like its a long drive...

Yup, that was my car... probably the rattyest one at the show. I saw your and z_racer's cars, I may have to copy your paint schemes if I ever get around to painting, not a bad look. For those interested, total cost of the strut bars comes out like this: bracket set for whole car: $80 10' long 3/4x.064 steel tube: $10 Rod ends, threaded tube inserts, Grade 8 hardware: ~$50 Exhaust shop's charge for welding: ~$20 Total cost: $160 (probably give or take 10 bucks) Onto the next project: Adjustable TC rods...

Never seen box flares done that way on a Z... that looks awesome! Like the color as well.

Theyre done! I had everything ready to go for a while now but never the time to get these done. I marked where I wanted the brackets to be placed and took them over to the exhaust shop down the street. He had the brackets welded up in about 10 minutes, and I put them on without issues. There is enough room for a 14mm socket to fit and tighten all the screws, so bolting them in was a breeze. Next we sized up the tube and welded in the threaded tube end inserts. The cross bar it looked like there was still going to be a tiny bit of interference with the valve cover. To solve this we put a tiny kink in the tube on the exhaust shop's pipe bender and bolted everything on. Once it was bolted on I began to suspect that the kink probably didnt need to be there, I may have the cross bar redone without the kink or bend the bar straight again so I can adjust it without taking it off. The hood closed without issue, I did not see/hear/feel any interference. The rear went on with no problems at all. If you still want a set, send me a PM and we can work something out, it will be about $80 for a set of brackets. By "set" I mean a pair for the front and a pair for the rear. Anyway, here are some pics: